Devastating Devilliers Wallops Windies

The captain of the South African cricket team, AB Devilliers, refused to accept praise for leading his team to the second biggest win in a World Cup on Friday as the Proteas demolished the West Indies in Sydney, Australia. Instead, he went on to pay tribute to his team mates for setting up the foundation for his team’s victory and setting a base for his own performance.

Devastating Devilliers as he has become known, came onto the crease when the score was at 146 for 3 at 29.4 overs and from there, the Proteas were cruising on a one way train to victory, scoring a total of 262 off 20.2 overs, which is no mean feat. In order to reach his score of 162 not out, Devilliers had to face 66 balls which broke the record of the fastest score ever in the World Cup. His 150 was the fastest ever in a World Cup, beating by 19 balls the one that had been set by Australia’s Shane Watson in Mirpur against Bangladesh in 2013. Other records the Proteas match set were; Devilliers’ 52 ball ton was the second fastest to the 50 ball one set by Ireland’s Kevin O’Brien against England in 2011. The 408 score set by the Proteas in Friday’s match is the highest ODI total set by any team in Australia. The 257 run win by South Africa is the joint highest with India win of a similar margin against Bermuda in 2007.

As the West Indies captain, Jason Holder said after the match, if you take away Devilliers total, the Proteas were an ordinary team with an ordinary run rate. He added that they had done very well at the beginning and then they let the match slip away from their grasp. Holder also broke the record of having the poorest performance in a World Cup match, having taken only one wicket and conceded 104 runs from his ten over.